How easy is it to take a system and make it perform poorly?
Many listeners have system setups that are more about the look than performance. It's not hard to do, and the consequences to the sound are dramatic. Most who do this put together their system without thinking about the sound waves and pressure, then start to deal with what is left, and instead of opening up the sound they close in in.
The picture above may look cool, but what is wrong? In this hobby looks can be deceiving. Below look at the sound waves as they make their way out of the speaker with this setup.
As you can see even with a common high end audio system setup most of the waves before they ever get to you have been contaminated (distorted) by objects you are told to use to make the sound better. The fact is they are forcing the speakers to beam, and causing the room to only produce those frequencies that can stablize in the space. This will keep your soundstage from reaching full size and make it difficult for the notes do develope from the frequency spectrum left.
Lets take a look at this same system and start to set it free.
Lets look at what I did to the system
You can see from the original setup I switched to a low profile rack. I use platforms close to the floor but even cutting a foot or more off of the height makes a huge difference in openess. Get those components out of the way. Save the "you did it for sound reasons" for someone else
. If you have your speakers on the same wall as your rack you have all kinds of distortion going on. Look above at what I did. I pulled the speakers away from the wall and put the rack half way between the speakers and the wall, then I spent some money for you and put in CornerTunes and EchoTunes. Even if you pulled the speakers out, lowered the rack (pulling it out half way between speaks and wall), and did 2 CT's and 1 ET in the configuration I did here you will be
, holy smokes what a new system. Do not do the "1st reflection" point before doing the upper parts of the room. This is a no no, and will stop you from getting all the pressure building correctly. You can come back to the side wall tunes but you need to get most of the info into the room first before shutting things down. This is a major reason a lot of folks can't play more music. Music info needs equality to spread. Not alot of space just balanced space.
Now I know alot of guys start bellyacking when you bring up stuff they don't want to do, but this isn't Stereophile or Audiocircle, or TAS, this is TuneLand and you can either look at things from a positive point of view and lets have some fun or stay stuck. I don't make the rules, I live by them. If you open up your mind to what we do here your going to be surprised at what is waiting for you around the corner. Plus pulling out the system and getting the equipment out of the way is really just common sense.
Sit in your seat and look around you. What is blocking the sound from getting to you? And, what is crowding the speakers? Their not magic makers you know. They work like any other room source. They don't fire as much forward as you think (some horns do) and if your sitting there with a lot between you and your speakers, you have a lot to deal with.
Hint: when I say inbetween you and your speakers or your speakers and you what I'm talking about is equal space. Here's an example. Take a ruler and measure the distance between you and the speakers. Now take the ruler with that measurement and see what you have that is closer to you (including the floor and ceiling) than the speakers.
Now go to the speakers and do the same. Those are the things that are telling the speakers how to sound and telling your ears what to hear.
See the above room I just did. This is not a listening room. This is a living room with a stereo in it. The hobbyist with this room is hearing first off the sofa. This fabric is throwing the highs out of pitch. The listener is hearing what before he hears the speakers? The tables, the chair, the rug, the rack, the ceiling and the floor and back wall. So while we're looking at those pieces let go listen to them. You can use your voice and get close to these objects and hear how the sound either reverberates or gets soaked up. Notice how much better the reverberation sounds than the dampening? A lot better. Now if you could control that reverb so that it doesn't go on forever, and in this size room it won't, and clear out the objects distorting the sound, you would have the beginnings of your own private concert hall.
Lets go back to the drawing I did before
All you need to do to start your journey is this simple change of a few things. Those who do enter into a completely different hobby. No amount of money can make the living room/stereo setup sound as good as the system and room working together.
Now look at what I went and did
Oh no, I turned it into a concert hall, how could I
Guys, you can see by looking at it how much better it sounds.
Now that you have seen the areas of the room used to control some of the sound pressure and waves I have some important advice.
Don't Kill The Sound
Acoustical companies keep coming out with products that keep doing the same things that you want to get away from. If your going to kill the sound you might as well steal some pillows off the sofa and grab some drapes
, cause your going to end up in the same place just a few dollars poorer.
When you get these "acoustical products" that are made to kill the sound your doing what? KILLING THE SOUND!
Below is direct absorption. The soundwaves are being killed in the room causing acoustical distortion.
Above is RoomTunes barricade product letting the music get to the listener while burning the extra energy on the back side, leaving the room distortion free.
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Tue Jun 24, 2014 2:30 pm
